(~s, ~ting)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: The form '~' is used in the present tense and is the past and present participle.
1.
If you ~ someone or something, you deliberately touch them with a lot of force, with your hand or an object held in your hand.
Find the exact grip that allows you to ~ the ball hard...
Police at the scene said Dr Mahgoub had been ~ several times in the head.
= strike
VERB: V n, V n
2.
When one thing ~s another, it touches it with a lot of force.
The car had apparently ~ a traffic sign before skidding out of control...
= strike
VERB: V n
3.
If a bomb or missile ~s its target, it reaches it.
The hospital had been ~ with heavy artillery fire.
VERB: V n
•
Hit is also a noun.
First a house took a direct ~ and then the rocket exploded.
N-COUNT
4.
If something ~s a person, place, or thing, it affects them very badly. (JOURNALISM)
The plan to charge motorists ?75 a year to use the motorway is going to ~ me hard...
About two-hundred people died in the earthquake which ~ northern Peru...
VERB: V n, V n
5.
When a feeling or an idea ~s you, it suddenly affects you or comes into your mind.
It ~ me that I had a choice...
Then the answer ~ me. It had been staring me in the face.
VERB: it V n that, V n
6.
If you ~ a particular high or low point on a scale of something such as success or health, you reach it. (JOURNALISM)
Oil prices ~ record levels yesterday.
VERB: V n
7.
If a CD, film, or play is a ~, it is very popular and successful.
The song became a massive ~ in 1945.
? flop
N-COUNT: oft N n
8.
A ~ is a single visit to a website. (COMPUTING)
Our small company has had 78,000 ~s on its Internet pages.
N-COUNT
9.
If someone who is searching for information on the Internet gets a ~, they find a website where there is that information.
N-COUNT
10.
If two people ~ it off, they like each other and become friendly as soon as they meet. (INFORMAL)
They ~ it off straight away, Daddy and Walter...
PHRASE: V inflects, pl-n PHR, PHR with n
11.
to ~ the headlines: see headline
to ~ home: see home
to ~ the nail on the head: see nail
to ~ the road: see road
to ~ the roof: see roof